This is my own tutorial that I mentioned in the previous post on how I made realistic looking fire using a particle system in After Effects CS3. Of course, you can also do in in later versions of AE but personally I think the "old ones are the best ones."
Of course, you'll need a solid to apply the effects to so go to Layer > New > Solid. Don't worry about changing the colour cause it won't show anyway by the time we're done.
Then go to Effect > Simulation > Particle World or Particle Systems. You can use either one of these but if you want to create fire for 3D or live action purposes, then Particle World provides more functionality.
Now follow these steps to use the Particle World/Systems. You can play around with the controls to get the desired amount of fire but for this tutorial we'll start off with a simple flame.
1. Change Birth Rate to 0.3. (Birth Rate affects the amount of particles expelled per second.)
2. Change Longevity to 2.0. (The particles will stay on screen for 2 seconds before dissipating.)
3. Under Producer, change Radius X to 4.0 and Radius Y to 1.0.
4. Under Physics, click on button saying Explosive beside the word Animation and change that to Fire.
That's it for the Particles. Leave all the other controls the way they are. Place your marker across the timeline a little to see the particles in action and they should look like this.
1. Change "Glow Based On" to Alpha Channel.
2. Set Glow Threshold to 37.6%
3. Set Glow Radius to 5.0
4. Set Glow Intensity to 2.8
That's it for the first glow effect. Simple, really. But we're not using just one, we'll be using several glow effects to get the particles to look like fire. So let's do the second one.
Once again, Effect > Stylize > Glow
1. Change "Glow Based On" to Alpha Channel.
2. Set Glow Threshold to 14.1%
3. Set Glow Radius to 9.0
4. Set Glow Intensity to 0.4
Ok, now we will alter the exposure a bit.
Effect > Color Correction > Levels. You could use Curves if you want but for first timers, it would be a little complicated.
Set the controls as shown in the image below and your fire should look the same as it is on the right.
If you're there, then great. Now we will add some appropriate colour to the particles.
Effect > Color Correction > Colorama.
Now click on Output Cycle, then click on Preset Palette, scroll down and select Fire.
Good, now when we do more glow and blur effects, the colorama will generate those colours based on the tone and shading of the fire.
Okay, now we will add a special kind of blur effect that will make the particle kind of ridge and swirl.
Effect > Blur & Sharpen > CC Vector Blur.
1. Set the Amount to 18.0
2. Set Angle Offset to 0x +85.0 degrees.
That's pretty much it, although you can play around with it if you wish. Your fire should now look like in the image below.
Right, now we simply add another blur effect.
Effect > Blur & Sharpen > Fast Blur.
Simply set the Bluriness to 4.0.
Now we add another two glow effects.
Once again, Go to Effect > Stylize > Glow
1. Leave "Glow Based On" at Color Channels.
2. Set Glow Threshold to 60.0%
3. Set Glow Radius to 29.0
4. Set Glow Intensity to 0.6
Apply the glow effect again.
1. Leave "Glow Based On" at Color Channels.
2. Set Glow Threshold to 6.3%
3. Set Glow Radius to 30.0
4. Set Glow Intensity to 0.4.
Your fire should now look like this. Almost there, just need to add a few more effects.
Go to Effect > Keying > Color Key.
The purpose of this is to clean up our fire and get rid of certain particles on the outside that do not go well.
1. Set Color Key to Black. Use the Eyedropper symbol or simply click on the colour to set up the palette box and change it to black.
2. Set Color Tolerance to 150.
3. Set Edge Thin to 1.
4. Set Edge Feather to 10.5.
Okay, now we add just one more glow effect.
On last time, Go to Effect > Stylize > Glow
1. Leave "Glow Based On" at Color Channels.
2. Set Glow Threshold to 60.0%
3. Set Glow Radius to 32.0
4. Set Glow Intensity to 0.6
Now you've finished creating your fire and if it looks the same as it does in the image below, then you've done it! Now you can just change the setting in the particle system to get the desired amount of fire that you wish to have. Remember to increase Birth Rate whenever you increase the Radius X & Y. Otherwise the particles will just look silly.
That concludes this tutorial, hope you enjoyed it and now you can create really good fire for visual effects. Oh, one other thing, to make sure that you don't waste time doing the whole thing again whenever you want to create fire, select all modes in left side by clicking on Particles and then Shift-click on Glow 6 and then go to Animation > Save Animation Preset. Then just type in the name that you wish to call it and press Ok. It is now saved so whenever you want to use it, you'll find it in the Effects & Presets box which should be located on right side of screen. Well done.
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